Device for clearing flume-gratings.



Patented Oct. 7, 1902.

No. 7l0,804.

DEVICE FOR CLEARING FLUIIE GBATIHGS.

(Application filed Mar. 26, 1902 (No Modal.)

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IIMIIIIIIIIIITITII M? E EH'FIE umum o "un UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE.

JOSEPH G. RIEL, OF MITTINEAGUE, MASSACHUSETTS.

DEVlCE 'F OR CLEARING FLUME-GRATINGS.

SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent No. 710,804, dated October 7, 1902. Application filed March 26, 1902. Serial No. 100,021. (No model.)

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, JOSEPH G. RIEL, a citizen of the United States of America, residing at Mittineague, in the county of Hampden and State of Massachusetts, have invented new and useful Improvements in Devices for Clearing Flume-Gratings, of which the following is a specification.

This invention relates to devices for keep-, ing the gratings which guard the entrance to a mill-race free from obstruction, whether the latter are in the form of floating ice or debris, and whereby the formation of anchor-ice on said grating is prevented, the object of the invention being to produce a device of this character which may be applied to any grating already constructed; and the invention consists in the construction described in the following specification and pointed out in the claim.

In the drawings forming part of this ap plication, Figure 1 is a sectional side elevation of a mill-race or flume having the usual grating at the entrance thereof and showing my invention applied thereto. Fig. 2 is a front elevation of Fig. 1, a portion thereof being broken away. Fig. 3 is a perspective view, somewhat enlarged, of a part of the grating and a part of my improved devices applied thereto.

Referring now to the drawings, a indicates the bars forming the usual grating over the entrance of a mill-race or iiume which are set in a suitable frame of timbers, (indicated by 1).)

To provide a support for the devices con stituting my invention, I secure to the members b a rectangular frame consisting of the two uprights c and a suitable sill-piece cl. To the inner edge of the uprights a there are secured in any convenient way the strips 6, provided with a channel therein and extending from end to end thereof for the reception of a sliding frame f, which is rectangular and is preferably made of metal and may slide freelyin a vertical plane, guided in its movements by the channel-strips e, in which. the two vertical sides are entered. Extending horizontally from side to side of this frame f are bars g, rigidly held in said frame, and on these bars are fingers 7L, so spaced that they will enter the spaces between the bars CL of the grating, as shown in Fig. 3. The bars 9 the bars g in cross-section.

may be secured in the framef and the fingers h secured thereto in any desirable way to hold the latter rigidly in the horizontal position and provide for the proper spacing thereof. A good method of securing the fingers to the bars g is shown in the drawings; and it consists in making the bars round, then planing off one side thereof, and casting the fingers h with an opening through the hub corresponding in outline to the shape of The fingers 7t may then be slipped onto the bars, with suitable washers 2' between them, whereby the proper spacing may be obtained. This construction permits one by simply varying the width of the washers to space the fingers to correspond to thespacing of any grating-bars a. Preferably two of the bars g are applied to the frame f, so located that the entire submerged length of the bar a may be traversed by the fingers h during the vertical reciprocatory movements of said frame. To provide for this movement of the frame f, at the upper edge thereof there are provided two short armsj for receiving the horizontal shaft is, from each end of which a connecting-bar m extends upwardly to the side of a gear 11, to which it is pivotally attached eccentrically thereto, said gears being -of such diameter that their rotation will provide for the requisite reciprocatory movement of the frame, the gears being supported on a shaft'o, hung in proper bearings p on the upper end of the uprights c, all as shown. Parallel with the shaft 0 is asecond shaft q, also supported on the uprights c in bearings r,

having thereon pinions sin mesh with the gears n, and on one end of said shaft q means are provided for driving it-as, for example, the beveled gear t, adapted to be engaged by another gear on a shaft running to some suitable source of power.

To facilitate and render more uniform the movements of the frame f, I provide for the latter suitable counterweights tt, hung on a chain o, whose opposite end is attached to the top of the frame. These chains run over grooved pulleys 20, supported in bearings ac, bolted to the uprights c.

From the foregoing description it is seen that the device may be applied to any flumegrating in front of which the uprights 0 may be secured and that by means of their regular reciprocating vertical movements the fingers h will dislodge anything which may become attached to the grating-bars a, said fingers having sufficient rigidity to shear off ice that may form thereon or to dislodge sticks or other floating debris that may be carried against the grating by the flow of water therethrough.

Having thus described my invention, What I claim, and desire to secure by Letters Patent of the United States, is

The combination with the grating of a millrace, of a vertically-reciprocating frame supported in parallelism therewith, channeled guide-strips for said frame, bars extending from side to side of said frame, fingers on said bars extending horizontally between the bars of said grating, a counterweight for said frame, a wheel and a pitman connection between said wheel and said frame, and means for rotating said wheel.

JOSEPH G. RIEL. Witnesses:

WILLIAM H. OHAPIN, K. I. CLEMONS. 

